Resources

When historians research a topic, we turn to a multitude of primary and secondary sources to understand it. I have found the same methods to be useful as I learn about herbalism. My primary sources are the plants and dried herbs. My secondary sources include books, articles, websites, apps, other herbalists, and more. Here is a growing list to aid your own exploration:

Apps

About Herbs: “This app, presented by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Service, provides evidence-based information about herbs, botanicals, supplements, and more.” In truth, this app does more than this. It offers two viewing options for each entry: the Professional and the Consumer. The Professional entry includes full scientific information and citations for studies. The Consumer entry is less jargonistic and aimed at providing clear and accurate information without the scientific apparatus. If you want to know whether there have been any “real” studies done about an herb or mode of therapy, this app is useful.

Online Resources

Print Herbals

Robin Rose Bennett, The Gift of Healing Herbs: Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2014.

Nicholas Culpeper, Culpeper’s Color Herbal (New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 1983): Culpeper is an important figure in the history of Euro-American medicine and the history of herbalism. First published in 1653, The Complete Herbal was the first medical text aimed at a lay audience. Culpeper had trained as a physician and then apprenticed with an apothecary. Frustrated with social and professional hierarchies of all sorts, Culpeper wanted to provide his patients and the general public with the knowledge to effectively treat themselves. The Complete Herbal is now in the public domain. In addition to the original text, this 1983 edition includes beautiful color illustrations as well as modern updates provided by editor David Potteron.

Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2004): Starting from the premise that the underlying philosophies of Euro-American herbalism have been forgotten as the biomedical model took precedence, Wood sets to the task of reclaiming this lost knowledge. Tracing the intellectual history of Euro-American herbalism and its relationship to herbal practices in other cultures, Wood offers succinct, clear, and understandable descriptions of the underlying doctrines and how they frame herbal medicine.